"Where is Fury?" Steve asked.
"I'm here."
From the shadows, the man wearing a black windbreaker and an eye patch stepped out.
Nick Fury looked gloomier than before, and his one eye was bloodshot.
"Unbelievable." He slammed a stack of documents on the table. "These bastards even froze my backup account at Cayman Islands!"
Steve·Rogers did not raise his head, but said lightly, "I thought Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. should not have an overseas secret account."
"That's the emergency fund!" Fury pointed to the newspaper headline, with his one-eyed photo printed on it, and the title was "S.H.I.E.L.D. Rat: Nick Fury's Ten-Billion Corruption Empire".
"Pierce, that son of a bitch, not only wanted to kill me, he also wanted me to be infamy for eternity. Now all the dirty water has been poured on my head. Those Hydra agents who were caught? Their current confessions are surprisingly consistent - it was Director Fury who instigated us."
"Me? Corrupt? Even if I buy an eye patch, I have to go through the reimbursement process! Now I have become an invisible rich man who owns twelve private islands? Damn it, if I had those islands, I would be basking in the sun at Bahamas instead of drinking instant coffee in this moldy hole!"
In the corner, Clint·Barton, who was adjusting the arrows, couldn't help laughing, but was immediately glared at by Fury.
"That's not funny, Barton."
"Sorry, boss." Barton shrugged, "I just remembered that my wife is pregnant."
Fury turned his head and looked at Steve who was always silent.
"Listen, Captain. We need to fight back. Opinion is one-sided right now, but I have one more card up my sleeve."
"What card?"
"You." Fury pointed at Steve, "You are Captain America. Pierce tried to throw dirt on you, but no one believed it. Especially after you signed the contract with Vought, even President Ellis publicly supported you."
"As long as you stand up." Fury came closer, "Stand in front of the camera and say to the world: 'Nick Fury is innocent and I believe him.' The situation will be reversed."
"What if not?"
Steve finally raised his head and looked at Fury. There was no eagerness in Fury's eyes, only a chilling calmness.
Fury was stunned for a moment and narrowed his one eye. "What did you say?"
"I said, no."
Steve put down his shield and stood up.
"I won't vouch for you, Nick."
"Why?" Fury's voice rose a few degrees, "We are comrades! We fought against aliens together! You know what kind of person I am!"
"Really?"
Steve looked directly at the one eye, without any wavering in his eyes.
"Do I know you? Nick?"
"Just now, you were still complaining about those secret accounts that were discovered. Is that money really used for emergencies? Or is it used for some 'second phase' and 'third phase' weapon research and development that I don't know about?"
Fury opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted by Steve.
"Even if you tell me, you will never speak more than three words. You have a lot of secrets, Nick. So many that even you may not be able to remember which ones are true and which ones are lies."
Steve took a step closer, and the distance between the two was less than twenty centimeters.
"Maybe Pierce is lying. But do you dare to look me in the eyes and say that you have never used public funds to do something... shady?"
Fury was silent.
Because he did. In order to protect the earth, he did a lot of dirty work.
"Look." Steve took a step back, a trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes, "This is the problem."
"I cannot use my credibility to endorse someone I cannot understand. That would be irresponsible to the people who trust me."
"If you want to prove your innocence..."
Steve picked up the shield and hung it on his back.
"... Then use actions to prove it. Like a man, instead of hiding behind your back to do public relations."
The air-raid shelter fell into a deathly silence.
Natasha sat on the table, swinging his legs, watching the confrontation between the two men, with a smile on his face.
She knew that this was Captain America, as stubborn as a rock, but precisely because of this, he was the captain.
A long time.
"Huh..."
Fury took a long breath, as if he wanted to let out all the depression in his chest.
He straightened his collar and returned to his King of Spies aloof appearance.
"Okay. You're right, old antique."
Fury walked to the tactical map and placed his fingers heavily on the position of Washington, D.C..
"Since public relations cannot work, we will follow the old path - stage a coup."
Everyone's eyes were focused on him.
"Pierce wants to play dirty, so we will play with him. But he forgot one thing..." Fury's one eye flashed with a dangerous light, "... the current S.H.I.E.L.D. was brought out by me."
"I know every brick and tile there, every monitoring probe, and every ventilation duct there better than he does."
"There is still a human heart."
Fury looked at Barton.
"Barton, you come with me. Let's sneak into Triskelion."
"Just the two of us?" Barton raised an eyebrow, "Sounds like a suicide mission."
"No!" Fury sneered, "Let's take over S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal communication system. I will personally tell every agent still in the building who Pierce is. I will wake up those agents who are kept in the dark and let them know who to aim their guns at."
"As for you..."
Fury opens a high-tech suitcase and brings up a holographic map.
His finger slid on the map and locked on a secret coordinate located at Virginia.
"My insider has sent back the latest information."
"Pierce, that old bastard, kidnapped four directors of World Security Council in order to ensure that the plan was foolproof."
"He brought them here, Pierce intends to perform forced 'neuro-remodeling' on those directors. That is... brainwashing."
A blurry photo appeared on the screen.
In the photo, three burly men were escorting several hostages with their heads covered into a building.
One of those three men had a metal arm that shone with cold light.
Steve stood up suddenly, and the chair fell to the ground with a loud noise.
"Winter Soldier?!"
"Yes." Fury looked at Steve, "And there's more than one."
"They slept in the cryo chamber for decades. Now, Pierce wakes them up.",
"But the good news is," Fury explained, "Most of those newly thawed Winter Soldier are in extremely unstable mental conditions and cannot even execute complex instructions. Pierce had to put them back into the freezer."
"So, there are only three that can be used."
Fury hold out three fingers.
"Three super soldiers. One of them is your old friend, Bucky."